Celebration Tablefunner finished!

Ok, I finished the Round Tablerunner and I'm so happy with it.  I love it and just had to share it quickly!  I normally hand finish or hand sew the binding on but decided I wanted it finished fast so I used a stitch on my sewing machine and stitched along the ditch and finished it off. I like it alot!  Just in time for the 4th of July!

Tatting, quilting and rambling!

Woo! What a week!  It has been busy.  Why is it that time flies whether you are having fun or not????  Oh, well, June is over and so is half the year!  Do you believe that?  Bring on July and celebrations!
 When I think of July, I think of July 4th first...We always went down to see my Grandmother and cousins on this holiday.  It was always hot in south Texas (she lived in Bryan, Tx, you know, where Texas A & M is)  and my Grandmother did not have air conditioning.  I don't know how she did that but I guess it's what you get used to, right?  She always had her windows and doors open  and she had lots of trees so the house stayed fairly cool. As kids, I thought it was hot but we dealt with it.  I don't think I would deal with it too good now!  We, my brother and I always had to sleep on the floor and we always listened to the crickets or cicada's churp at night and talked and giggled until my parents or someone hollered at us to go to sleep.  Great memories!  Fireworks, food, family and fun times! 

Ok, I got off track but I just had to share.  I worked on a few things this week.  I did two more tatted crosses. I worked on one at tatting and finished it the next day, then started another and worked on it while I watched TV this week.  Had to watch Dallas!  I'm loving this show, all the sneaking around.  JR is back!  Anyway, I finished the two crosses and then I finished binding a charity quilt.  I quilted this earlier in the week and put the binding on but finally finished the binding Thursday night while watching the movie Joyful Noise with Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah. I loved this show too. If you haven't seen it, it is a good show to watch. I liked this show as the two stars didn't hog the whole show. There were two younger singers in the show too that were wonderful.  I didn't recognize the two younger singers at first but  found out later who they were.

Here's the tatted crosses...

Back to quilting, right?  I bound the quilt. It is a Project Linus quilt and it turned out really cute.  I used off white quilting thread on the front and blue on the back. The blue kept coming through to the front in places but all in all, it is ok.  I'm going to have to practice more and not use different colors for the quilting too.

Here's the Project Linus quilt...

I also finished quilting my July 4th round tablerunner. I cut the binding and I'll be putting that on when I finish this post.  I'm also going to pull out my purple fabric and see if I can make some blsince this is the last day of June.  So for now, I gotta go get busy, I'll post more later today, I hope. 

The middle stripe is the binding. I'm going to go sew it on now and

Tatting Tuesday and some free fabric!!!

I went to Tatting on Tuesday and several of my friends were there that hadn't been there in weeks.  Some of them have been sick, one of them had a house fire and the other two had moved from their houses and combined into one (they are sisters.) It was so good to see all of these sweet ladies. I have really missed their smiling faces.  Everyone that comes to Tatting is not just a tatter. Everyone does all kinds of different crafts. Some do jewelry, scrapbooking, photography, crochet, knitting...you name it and I bet these ladies have done it.  Every now and again, we like to clean out our closets. So, we bring stuff up to the meeting and put it on the table and anyone that wants it can have it.  That's what happened last night.  Two of the girls that had moved and combined households had a clear out and brought stuff up to share.  Everyone got some stuff and I got some great stuff. I got several patterns and some fabric too.  I got two pieces of fabric that is patriotic fabric and is perfect for the tablerunner I just made.  I'm going to use some of it for the backing and I have some ideas in mind for another runner for the rest of it.  I'm very excited!!!  It's fun to get others castoffs to see how you can play with it! 

We met a new tatter last night too. She found us from Intatters and came to our meeting. She is a needle tatter and just started tatting in January. She said she learned to tat from the internet and books.  She's done a lot of great stuff and was excited to find a group of tatters to belong to.  We only have one other lady in our group that is a needle tatter.  Everyone else uses the shuttle to tat.  I tried needle tatting and didn't like it too much but I never had any lessons or saw anyone else do it.  Now that she is coming, we can share our knowledge. I can see how needle tatting is done and she can see shuttle tatting.  We are really excited to have her as a new member. 

Here's the tatting I finished this week.  I made a cross. I love this pattern. It is fun, quick and easy.
I use this pattern alot for crosses.  It's one of those patterns you can make it and not have to think about it too much.    With the same thread, I made my other favorite pattern. The Spinning Wheel Glass Mat.  I haven't done one of these in awhile and it had been on my mind the last couple of weeks.  I'll be making more crosses and more mats all summer.  Easy tatting and great gifts. 

Here's the stuff I came home with. Some patterns and some fabric.  Most of it is scraps but there were two patriotic fabrics in this that I'll be using.  You'll see it soon!

Tomorrow is my small quilt group meeting so I'll be showing you what my group is up to.  Until next time, happy sewing!

Some Reproduction Swap Blocks

Ok, I'm now officially ready for my quilt meeting Thursday night. I usually do all my blocks immediately and then play the rest of the month.  Well, I've been getting a little lazy and putting my blocks off until the last minute.  That won't happen again.  It makes me too nervous!  I came home today and made my 5 blocks for the exchange.  Here they are:

I made three just alike for the block on the left. We can make them all alike or however we want as long as we make 5 per month. 

I made my 40 nine patches Saturday and showed you those.  The 9 patches are also an exchange I'm doing with this group.  Now, the only thing I have left to do for the meeting is to make a mug rug.  I'm not sure that will get done as it has low priority.  I'm through for the night for sewing. Now, I have to be a good girl and go do my dishes! Ugh, unfortunately my magic powers are gone and I can't get them to do themselves.  Tomorrow is Tatting Tuesday and I'll show you some of what I've been doing for it later in the week.  Until next time, happy quilting!

A few things I'm working on this weekend

I hope everyone had a great week.  I've had a good week and gotten a few things going.
I have been quilting on a little quilt for charity and having fun with it.  I finished the quilting on it and now just need to bind it.  I'll show you that little quilt when it's bound. 

Tuesday night was tatting night and I'm back to tatting crosses....so relaxing and fun to do!


Wednesday night, I had to watch DALLAS!  I love it.  JR hasn't changed at all except for his eyebrows getting bushier!  I watched this show years ago and couldn't resist watching it again.  I don't live too far from Southfork Ranch and trust me, it's just a little smaller than what they are saying on the show!  Anyway, it's fun to watch with all the scheming and conniving going on on the show. I hope you guys are enjoying it too....

Last night I went and sewed with some friends at the church.  I forgot to sign up for Heidi and Bobbi's Friday night sew in but I thought about it last night!  I hope all of you had fun sewing together!

I visited with my friends and got a few things done too.  I cut strips for some 9 Patches and sewed the strips together.  I also sewed up a red, white and blue round tablerunner. I saw this on Barbara's blog (Bejeweled) and loved it.  I ordered the fabric from her sister's site, Inchworm Fabrics and got the pattern free.  It was easy and quick to do and I have enough fabric left for one more... I still have to quilt it but it will be next in line. I want to have it on my table for the 4th of July!

Today, I put together 40 purple nine patches for my exchange this month. 

Here's a picture of 80 nine patches together in two sets...they are not sewn together.  I have 40 to sew together now and I'll get 40 more this Thursday too.  I think you call this a postage stamp quilt but I'm not sure.

With my left over fabric from the 9 patches, I put together 4 Disappearing 4 patches but...I cut them the wrong size so I can't use them for the project I intended.  :-(

Oh, well, I'll use them for something along the way.

See how much smaller they are compared to the other DP4 patches I'd done?  I started out with 5 inch squares and found some leftover squares in my UFO box that I thought I used for the project. They were 4 1/2" so I cut the purples down to that size without measuring...Well, duh!   I have a little bit left over so maybe I can make some DP4 in the right size.  I wanted to sew more but the kids are coming over and the baby is waking up so I'll have to stop for now.  Hopefully, I can get some more sewing time in tomorrow afternoon.  Til then, happy sewing!

A Special Jesus quilt.

Last Friday night I went and sewed with my friends at the church.  Hanging at the church was a wallhanging that the church commissioned one of my friends to make.  It is a special quilt and she did a great job on it.  Every church member was asked to bring at least one piece of fabric that had a special meaning to them.  My friend, Sharon, drew up the pattern and created this wonderful piece with their fabric. 

It is a picture of Jesus and is made up of 1 inch finished pieces of fabric.  It is beautiful and the picture doesn't do any justice to it.  It hangs in their church for all of the members to see and appreciate. She worked on this a little on Friday nights and we got to see it come together.

Fun and productive Saturday

Here's my tablerunner I finished up this morning.  I like it except for the quilting.  I quilted it the way the pattern suggested and the quilt pattern is fine. I couldn't decide what color thread to use and finally decided on an off white thread and I don't like the color.  But, you know what?  This is how it's going to stay. Finished is better than perfect and I can live with it so it is what it is....It will be fine with a poinsetta on it at Christmas, right?   Anyway, I like the pattern and I might make another one.  This is my second one and if I make another one, I can give the other two to my sisters. Hmmm, we'll see. 

I also put the borders on my Thimbleberrie quilt....

And, here's the little dress I made for my youngest granddaughter.  This was a onesie and I cut it apart. I put a little skirt on the bottom and reattached the panty party.  I then put an appliqued cupcake on the top of it.  (The fabric on the bottom was cupcake fabric so I used the applique to match the fabric.)  This was fun and quick to make. This is a 12 month size but it looks bigger. 

Mommy and Daddy liked it too.

Some little finishes and my grandkids

Hey there, you thought I left, huh?  Well, no, I didn't!  I'm back and I have a few things to show you. Not many, but a few.  I haven't been too busy. I've been watching TV and watching grandkids between working so I just haven't blogged....And, you know when you haven't blogged for a while you just don't know where to start.  It's like a catch 22...What all do you say?  So, I'll just catch you up with the latest, how's that?

I finished a little wall hanging that has been around for awhile.  She is finally finished and up on the wall for so I can look at her. She'll come back out closer to Christmas but I had to put her up for a few days to talk to her and welcome her.

Then, I finished a little dolly for my oldest granddaughter. I  meant to do this one several months ago but time flies when you have plans!  Anyway, this one is now with her new friend, Alayna.  I gave her to her Thursday night. I think she liked her, she told her Mommy she knew she was getting her because she helped me make her.  She did too. She put some of the stuffing in the head and she also sat on my lap and sewed a little bit on the head too.  Her dolly is the middle one.  It's got Tinkerbell fabric on it.  They went to Disney World last year and she had to have something with Disney characters on it...I think she looks happy. :-)

My son and his little family came over Thursday night. Him and his wife watched the last two hours of House that I had recorded. (Their recording didn't work for some reason.) My DH and I played outside with the kids while they had some TV time.  This was the kids last day of school so they could stay longer.  I gave Brandon two movies he wanted for graduating from the second grade.  He had mentioned them several times in the past that he wanted them so I had to search for them. They are older movies and they were cheap.  I ordered one from Walmart and the other from Target.  I gave him Zathura and The Cat in the Hat with Mike Myers.  He was so excited, you would have thought I'd given him a million dollars.  I love kids, they get excited over the little things....

I gave Alanya the dolly I made for her and a new Barbie movie. She was also thrilled. She graduated from first grade. 

I couldn't leave Trent out, he's three and not in school but if the other kids got something, he had to have something too.  I got him a new soccer ball.  We played soccer for awhile with his new ball and then we rode bikes. Well, I didn't ride a bike. I have one but it needs new tires. My DH rode his bike with them and I worked in the garden...We had a great time.  Here's a picture of the bike riders...

Yeah!  School's out for Summer!  Time to play!

Well, I'll post more later. I have three more things to show you but I have to get busy while the baby is taking a nap.  Have a wonderful weekend.  Til next time, happy sewing!